The plans include design guidelines and a business coalition launched with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as CATL also expands battery swapping and recycling efforts in Europe.
CATL launched two circular battery initiatives on June 22 with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, BMW, Renault, Volvo, Google, Xiaomi and other industry participants at the Climate Innovation Forum during London Climate Action Week 2026. The plans cover circular battery design guidelines spanning the full battery lifecycle and a business coalition aimed at improving the policy, investment and commercial conditions needed to make circular business models standard across mobility and energy. The company framed the push around growing pressure on raw materials. By 2040, the global battery recycling market alone is projected to exceed RMB 1.2 trillion and create more than 10 million jobs, while the International Energy Agency projects demand for battery-critical minerals will increase fivefold over the same period. CATL said common design standards and longer-use business models will be needed alongside greater recycling capacity to meet that demand sustainably. The release also highlighted CATL's broader circularity strategy. It said the company became the first battery manufacturer to achieve carbon neutrality across its core operations in 2025 under ISO 14068-1 (carbon neutrality certification standard), and is targeting full value-chain carbon neutrality by 2035. On the same day, CATL and Octopus Energy announced Europe's first battery-swapping joint venture, targeting 300,000 electric trucks and 30 hubs across Europe by 2035, with the first UK hubs due in 2027. CATL also said Brunp Recycling processed 210,000 tonnes of end-of-life batteries in 2025, recovering 99.6% of nickel, cobalt and manganese, and that it plans to deliver its first sodium-ion energy storage systems starting this September.